For groups, License Manager enables consortial offices to manage licenses purchased on behalf of members, eliminating the need to manage them individually. In a single place, you can manage license agreements, rights, access and resolution to full text from the same interface, eliminating the need to synchronize data across multiple interfaces or devise workarounds to connect disparate systems.

Circulation and Acquisitions were the start with WMS. WorldShare Metadata, WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, and other applications are being introduced within the same architecture and user interface.

OCLC’s Cataloging Services, the OCLC FirstSearch service and WorldCat Resource Sharing Services (interlibrary loan) will undergo major change during the next few years to support the evolving needs of libraries. This transformation will provide new and expanded functionality to OCLC members. It will also advance OCLC’s strategy to collaboratively build Webscale with libraries.

OCLC Cataloging Services. OCLC WorldShare Metadata, introduced in August, will provide a complete metadata management solution for your licensed, physical and digital resources across multiple formats. This new set of applications and services will be made available in phases over the next few years.

Now available, WorldShare Metadata collection management automatically delivers WorldCat MARC records for all of your electronic materials. The service continuously updates the metadata and access URLs for these materials automatically helping user access to improve and your library staff to gain time for other priorities.

Recent enhancements

Support for creation of query-based collections based on any WorldCat data.

Upcoming enhancements

Delivery of local holdings records.

The option to receive updated records when data changes in the WorldCat master record.

To complement the collection management functions, OCLC is developing new record management capabilities. The new record management functions will provide catalogers with tools to more efficiently describe one-of-a-kind items your library holds, including licensed, physical and digital materials. New record management functionality will be used to create new WorldCat records and enrich existing records. Catalogers will benefit from use and reuse of linked data, constant data, terminologies and authority records, which will speed record creation, improve record quality and enhance user discoverability.

In 2013, OCLC will release new Web services of interest to developers in the cataloging community that will provide support for adding new WorldCat master records and enriching those that already exist, WorldCat holdings maintenance, and customized local bibliographic data and local holdings records.

In early 2013, OCLC will announce formation of the beta test pilot with a group of libraries, to test the record management functionality and associated Web services.

WorldShare Metadata collection management is currently available for WMS users and adds:

Another way to manage WorldCat holdings on knowledge base collections. WorldShare Metadata collection management can be done from “Discover Collections” within Acquisitions. Also, a search done in the Manage Collections area of Metadata is actually preserved if you select Acquisitions and then Manage Collections.

The means for WMS libraries (in 2013) to use collection management to provide metadata, including WorldCat master records, with WorldCat knowledge base URLs and local holdings data such as call numbers and barcodes embedded for group catalogs or other discovery systems.

WorldShare Metadata functionality will work with other OCLC services as well as traditional integrated library systems. Initial release of the new record management capabilities and Web services is planned for 2013.

Discovery. OCLC’s new user experience for FirstSearch will combine FirstSearch precision with WorldCat.org-type features. This new discovery experience will replace the current FirstSearch service. Active “unlimited” subscriptions to the current FirstSearch service will transfer automatically to the new discovery service. OCLC will provide FirstSearch libraries with the information they will need to use the new service.

The new unified and contemporary search experience will:

Meet users’ expectations for simple content discovery.

Maintain expert capabilities for library staff.

Provide staff with precision searching and expanded record views to accurately search and find items.

Show users only what is meaningful to them to find and get library content.

Functionality planned for the new experience includes:

Comprehensive view of library holdings from WorldCat.

Consistent relevancy rankings across search experiences.

No requirement for end-user authentication.

Research and initial testing for the new discovery experience are under way for WorldCat and other OCLC licensed databases, with WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local functionality to be added later.

Open migration for FirstSearch libraries is planned for mid-2013. There is no date set for release of the interface changes to WorldCat Local that would be used by WMS libraries.

The OCLC WorldShare Platformis the technical infrastructure on which OCLC’s Webscale (WorldShare) services are built. It provides data, tools and services for library developers, users and partners to collectively create and share applications. And at the global level, the WorldShare Platform provides a foundation to support library innovation.

It can help streamline workflows. Different systems and data streams from multiple vendors can be unified into a single, neutral workspace.

It opens up the playing field for developers. Developers at libraries with active subscriptions to one or more OCLC products can access ANY of the Web services available in a test environment.

It delivers on OCLC’s promise of neutrality, because developers can create and share apps that don’t require OCLC services—and library staff members can install them directly into subscribed OCLC services and elsewhere.

It provides functionality for community sharing and innovation, to create and share solutions broadly through apps and point-and-click installation options.

With the November release, enhancements are now available for two existing WorldShare APIs:

WorldShare Acquisitions API. A number of people have been working with the WMS Acquisitions API in the sandbox environment, and with that feedback, we noticed that the invoicing portion of the acquisitions workflow needed changes. We added the ability to update, delete, pay and revoke payment on invoices through the API.

If you have questions about these recent enhancements or ideas about what would be most helpful for you for future enhancements, please let us know.

COMING SOON: OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan. The new WorldShare Interlibrary Loan service will replace the existing WorldCat Resource Sharing Service in a phased migration that will end when WorldCat Resource Sharing access ends on December 31, 2013. The new service will transform traditional interlibrary loan into a broader fulfillment service that supports evolving workflow changes such as purchasing needed items instead of borrowing them. This will position interlibrary loan as one of many options your library can offer to suit your policies and user needs.

An 18-month phased migration to WorldShare Interlibrary Loan began in July 2012. Looking ahead:

Most current WorldCat Resource Sharing users will be able to use the new service beginning in February 2013.

Libraries with user-initiated interlibrary loan can begin to migrate in mid-2013 when the new discovery service interface becomes available.

Libraries outside the U.S. can migrate in the June to September 2013 timeframe. The WorldShare Platform will support new delivery features that will interoperate with other applications. These include:

Display of lender costs from the OCLC Policies Directory.

Display of item availability in WMS or a library’s integrated library system.